You might look into the proposed MFA at the University of New Mexico. The program's webpage mentions a May meeting that presumably took place and was important so far as planning for 2006-07 is concerned but the page doesn't seem to offer an update beyond that.

I'm pretty sure the University of New Hampshire's MFA program will be up by then. As of now, they offer an MA. Charlotte Bacon and Alexander Parsons were there for fiction when I attended as an undergrad (and I believe will still be there) and Charles Simic among others for poetry.

Florida State University's MFA program is new this year. They've had an MA/Phd program that has been pretty amazing for some time now. 5 Stegner award winners in 5 years. more best new american voices entries than any other school. and they offer full funding for 3 years.

I would suggest contacting the dept. directly--there doesn't seem to be any information online about the MFA program. The details may still be a bit sketchy, considering the infancy of the program. I would imagine the deadline for the 2006-2007 school year to be similar to most MFAs: early next year.

Here is the dept. contact information from their website:

The Florida State University Department of English Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580 Phone: (850) 644-4230 Fax: (850)644-0811 creativewriting@english.fsu.edu

Another new program on the horizon, through the Sewanee School of Letters. Both the M.A. degree in English and American Literature and the M.F.A. in Creative Writing will be offered as summer graduate programs with the first students enrolled in 2006.

According to an e-mail from the School's coordinator, "Both programs are designed for degree completion in 4 or 5 summers. Classes will be held in June and July each summer on the campus of the University of the South (usually known as Sewanee), atop the Cumberland Plateau in southeastern Tennessee."

No website yet, but for more information you can contact:

Margaret D. Binnicker Coordinator, Sewanee School of Letters The University of the South 735 University Avenue Sewanee, TN 37383 e-mail: mbinnick(at)sewanee.edu

Yes, New Hampshire's MFA will be up in the fall of 2006, although this is not official yet. I've heard good things about the faculty. Charles Simic is, well, Charles Simic.

This might be one to try to get in on the ground floor.

Just to put this out there...I heard from reliable sources that Charles Simic is retiring. When I contacted UNH, they assured me this wasn't the case, but if you look at their MFA proposal (available on the Eng. Dept. website) he's slated to teach only one class per semester, a translation workshop. However McKeel McBride is great and they are planning to hire someone else full-time...

Going anywhere, in any kind of program, to work with one professor is a mistake. My first wife went to grad school at NYU to study with one particular person, who then immediately took a leave of absence. Go for the program.

With MFA programs this is even more important, unless you know the person is a terrific teacher, and not just a terrific writer. I love Hemingway's short fiction, but would I have wanted to study with him? Not on your life.

I disagree with part of your suggestion, and agree with part. If you're able to work with the person of choice, from a number of alternatives, you've built yourself a tremendous situation. A program is a program: it is a collection of offerings prepared by individuals. Even a good student can get ignored in a program, regardless of the program's quality. I applied to a school soley on the basis of one individual (the program was OK, the individual was exceptional), and ifound it to be the ideal arrangement. I have recommended that approach for students I've advised, as well. Of course, enough communication must happen up front to ensure that the individual indeed is there to stay, at least for the duration of the student's graduate work.

But I agree with you completely that at the master's level, a quality program might be the safer, reasonable bet.

Not only that the individual will stay (often hard to guarantee), but that the individual will be available to the student. Maybe the famous writer only works with people in their last semesters. Maybe the famous writer isn't much of a teacher. Maybe the famous writer only works with people who sleep with F.W. There are a lot of possibilities, and yes, sometimes it works out, but (as Chief Dan George says in LITTLE BIG MAN -- the movie), "Sometimes it doesn't."